Production
Original Series Darker than Black was conceptualized by Tensai Okamura and produced by Bones and Aniplex. The series premiered on Tokyo Broadcasting System and Mainichi Broadcasting System's Thursday late night anime broadcasting timeslot, replacing the Sunrise series Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion on April 5, 2007, and similar to Code Geass incorporated corporate sponsorship of Japan News Network partners Pizza Hut and Nifty, where episodes of the series was streamed every week during the series' broadcast run. It completed its initial run on September 27, 2007, and received its broadcasting satellite premiere on Animax from May 8, 2007 to October 23, 2007. The series was also aired in English on Animax Asia, Animax's English language networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia from December 2008 onwards. The series has also been released in Japan by Aniplex across nine DVDs, each containing three episodes, except for the first DVD, which had only two. The ninth and final DVD included an original video animation, which expanded upon the romantic relationships between characters. The DVDs were released between July 25, 2007 and March 26, 2008 by Aniplex. FUNimation received the license for the series in Region 1 and has released one DVD compilation with two more coming in the future. The first English DVD was released on November 25, 2008 and the second and third DVDs were released on January 20, 2009 and March 10, 2009 respectively. Volume 4 was released on May 5, 2009 with Volume 5 released on June 23, 2009. Volume 6 is scheduled for release August 11, 2009 The episodes have four pieces of theme music: two opening themes and two closing themes. "Howling" by Abingdon Boys School served as the opening theme for the first fourteen episodes, while episodes fifteen through twenty-three and episode twenty-five had "Kakusei Heroism: The Hero Without A Name" by An Cafe as the opening. Episode twenty-four had no opening theme. "Tsukiakari" by Rie fu served as the closing theme for the first fourteen episodes and "Dreams" by High and Mighty Color was the closing theme for the last ten. The last episode, episode twenty-five, had no closing theme. Sequel: Gemini of the Meteor A document containing information about Bones staff and production details, was leaked onto the Japanese file-sharing site uploader.jp, within the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format, on July 2008. Among other details, including confidential contact information in regards to Bones staff members, it revealed that a second Darker than Black and Fullmetal Alchemist series was in production and were being directed by Tensai Okamura and Yasuhiro Irie respectively. This information regarding Fullmetal Alchemist, which had never been previously released, was later proven to be true on January 2009. In an official statement posted on Bones' official website, co-founder and president Masahiko Minami claimed that the document was not released by the studio themselves but by an unnamed third-party. In a later statement, Minami also stated in regards to the two new series, "It hasn't been decided yet. We are interested in doing them. As original science-fiction works, they were extremely fascinating. With these kinds of dramatic story lines, I feel that there's a lot we could do potentially."Six months later, however, the second series for Fullmetal Alchemist was confirmed to be in production with Yasuhiro Irie as director, thus confirming the document's validity. The second Darker than Black series has been confirmed in the 12th issue of Square Enix's Young Gangan Magazine. In the 14th issue of Young Gangan, the title has been revealed as Darker than Black: Ryūsei no Gemini (DARKER THAN BLACK-流星の双子-, Dākā Zan Burakku -Ryūsei no Gemini, lit. "Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor") and that it will be aired in October 2009. Category:Darker than Black *